Term Paper on "Automotive Software for Parts Stores"

Term Paper 10 pages (3891 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Automotive Software for Parts Stores

The business of Kirk Motors is very well-known, but while they understand that changes have to be made to their business systems to improve profitability and keeping up with their competitors, they do not know what steps they should take. To a large extent, the steps to be taken depend on the background of the managers/proprietors. Here the organization has already appointed a consultant to advise them on the software changes to be made. It is understood that the consultant is well versed in the art of software, but it is difficult to prepare fresh software for a requirement of this type. It is better to seek the assistance of experts on the subject and that seems to be the purpose of this report.

Thesis Statement:

Any change is difficult and for an organization a change means development or change of the persons concerned with the change. This will involve time unless the individuals are changed and the changing of individuals means that there will be a change in ethics of the persons and may be also their capabilities in other areas.

Analysis:

The business of Kirk Motors seems to be concentrated in one store in Cayman Islands. The organization already has a relatively large number of computers and printers, but they are being operated only as simple printers with pre-recorded prices of components. They are probably not being used as computers, and it does not seem that they much of software for the purpose of sales. At the same time, it is important for an organization to have records of 23,500 different components as it would be difficult to otherwise to even know what they have. In that context, the involvement of $30,000 in unaccounted stocks does not seem to be very high and may have occurred due to lack of knowledge among employees, or even defalcations by some employees. Thus the solution to that part of the problem is further education of the employees through seminars, circulars, or any other method that the organization has been following earlier. In any case, if the items are missing, then only the police can find them, and no software system can do much about it.

At the same time, the sales of the company have increased very sharply in one month, and it is important for the organization managers to find out the reasons for this increase. The process of development is steady and auto parts are neither a new fad, nor being made available in the islands for the first time. The matter has to be studied and a decision taken on the basis of information that is uncovered. The reasons for the fast increase in sales may be due to many different reasons, and the most likely reason is that the organization is selling some items at a price which is below cost, or the existing price in the market. This would enable others to buy from then and sell it in turn to others at a profit. This also may be the reason for the loss of $30,000 as has been mentioned earlier. Anyway, the company feels that the organization needs to update their software and we shall assume that the analysis of the company is correct.

This brings us to the question as to which software is required. While the expectations from the new software have been explained, the other matters have to be studied and the first among them is the existing system. The deficiencies in any system take place due to the design of the system. To understand this, one has to understand how the present system operates and it is clearly mentioned that it is not able to supply certain requirements of the client. The role of the computer user is very simple, and the programmer has to suggest the best possible method to solve the problem that is cropping up due to the software. This can be done in two ways, and one would be to buy existing software and get it adapted to the requirements of the organization by a suitable person. This person would be in general an expert on the particular software from the organization selling the software, and the role of the consultant would be to suggest particular software that can be used.

The concerned person would be entitled to a commission from the supplier apart from the fee that the consultant is being paid for preparing the report. This would suitably compensate them. At the same time, there has to be a realization that some of the existing staff in the organization are either incompetent or into a deal for making money on top of their salaries and other benefits. The question will come as these individuals are likely to cause problems with the software even after it is installed, and some software expert will have to come and sort the matter out. Getting an expert to come from a large company is both expensive and time consuming. This is a matter to be sorted out before any existing software is fixed.

The offerings from the biggest

It is well-known that IBM has been the biggest among all computer manufacturers and they are also now offering software for this purpose. The objectives for changing existing software by them is said to be lessening costs while increasing productivity as lower costs are a constant pressure from customers and competitors. The second object should be to continuously look at opportunities for entering new markets as that will help all organizations to get new customers. The third aim should be to change the experience of customers regarding the experience with the organization. The entire world is becoming a marketplace where products are available all 24 hours, and software should find a method for the organization to reach customers faster, and easier for customers when to order, what to order and in a manner that they will require the delivery. (Racing to compete, the automotive industry goes on demand)

The fourth aim of the software system should be to change the relationships with suppliers and this is needed as when the organization is operating on a demand basis with its customers, the suppliers also should be able to operate on a demand basis with the organization. The fifth aim should be to make the organization more flexible in matching up to the claims of the organization so that it can match up to the claims of competitors. This may not be very important for Kirk Motors immediately, but competitors will develop and a provision should be made for it now, when the situation of Kirk Motors is strong. There will be shifts in demand within the range of 23,500 products and this may lead to changes in the way competitors market their products. Kirk Motors has to constantly determine ways of being innovative and cost effective at either high or low demand levels. (Racing to compete, the automotive industry goes on demand)

This is the regular problem of a midsize automotive organization where we are placing Kirk Motors in. They must take certain actions to be able to remain competitive in the market. They have to anticipate and accordingly react to needs of customers, moves by competitors and opportunities that become available in the market. They have to understand and take advantage of all opportunities that are given by the market. To achieve those ends the organizations must streamline and integrate core or strategic business processes and systems so that they can increase productivity from their own organizations. This means an increase in availability of flexibility, innovation, better marketing, reduction in lead times, and better control of costs. The organizations have to look different from their competitors through an emphasis on value and innovation. They have to stop all competitors from growing at their expense. Their internal communications have to be made secure and collaborations with suppliers and customers have to be made increasingly simple. They have to ensure that there is continuation of business even when unforeseen events occur.

The biggest problem of using computing to solve the problem was that often organizations ended up buying too little or too much of computing power. There is now the system offered by IBM Flexible finance and that can help the organization better align its computer requirement and purchase. One does know whether this will be required by Kirk Motors, but their financial situation does not seem to be very strong as they are seemingly worried over a $30,000 loss or defalcation in stocks. The system from IBM gives opportunities to any organization to increase or decrease their software and other material availability in increasing quantities as per their requirement. When one buys under this system, one also gets the advantage of flexible pricing from IBM based on IBM rules. This is applicable to all software problems solved by IBM through e-business hosting service, application management service, financing on demand, leveraged procurement service and others which may not… READ MORE

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